1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus capable of notifying a user of an exit status of a discharged sheet, an image forming method, and a program product for controlling the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printer or the other image forming apparatus connected to a network accepts inputs of a print command by a user of each of client apparatuses that constitute the network from each client apparatus. The image forming apparatus outputs an image to a print sheet based on input data according to the command. When a plurality of print commands are transmitted to the image forming apparatus, printed sheets are output according to the respective commands and, then, are sequentially accumulated in a sheet exit tray of the image forming apparatus. For this reason, the user of each client apparatus is often incapable of easily grasping where the sheet corresponding to the user's command is present. Particularly, if the sheet is output with its print surface turned down, the user needs to turn up the print surface and determines whether the sheet corresponds to the user's print command. Further, the user often erroneously pulls out a sheet printed for the other user.
To solve these problems, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-145896 discloses an image forming apparatus capable of checking an exit status of a discharged sheet without turning out the sheet. This apparatus includes an image forming unit that forms an image on each recording medium, an exit unit to which the recording medium on which the image is formed by the image forming unit is discharged, and a display control unit that displays image information on each of a plurality of recording mediums so that a superimposition order of the respective recording mediums discharged to one exit unit is recognizable when the recording mediums are discharged to the exit unit.
According to the image forming apparatus disclosed in the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-145896, the image information is displayed on the display unit. A user can, therefore, confirm where the sheet corresponding to the user's print command is present while referring to the information.
In the meantime, the user of each client apparatus sometimes fails to pull out the sheet corresponding to the user's command and discharged to the exit tray of the image forming apparatus or erroneously pulls out the sheet of the other user discharged to the exit tray.
With the technique disclosed in the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-145896, however, even if the sheet printed for the other user is erroneously pulled out, none of the users can recognize that the sheet is erroneously pulled out until the user who pulls out the sheet check a content of the sheet.